Cain, James M. (James Mallahan), 1892-1977

When small time insurance salesman Walter Huff meets seductive Phyllis Nirdlinger, the wife of one of his wealthy clients, it takes him only minutes to determine that she wants to get rid of her husband - and not much longer to decide to help her do it.

The torrid story of Frank Chambers, the amoral drifter, Cora, the sullen and brooding wife, and Nick Papadakis, the amiable but inconvenient husband has become a classic of its kind, and established Cain as a major novelist with a spare and vital prose style and a bleak vision of America.